canderson

I see that they say the benefit now applies to SS cruises, but their online form as yet has none of the SS ships listed, so you can't use that to apply for the benefit. Perhaps that will change later. Meanwhile, I guess the old email approach would have to suffice.

Hmmm... one of our reasons for sailing Celebrity was the lack of PA use. Noon position announcement, notification of customs clearance for disembarkation at ports, occasional crew fire drills, and that was about it. REALLY hope the microphone isn't abused on our first SS sailing. It changes the whole tenor of the cruise.

I don't know if other companies do this, but it's definitely "a thing" on the two other RCG lines as well, especially in the Spring season.

Picked up the requisite 100 shares back in 2009 for something just shy of$15, and have used it a couple of dozen times, so I'm not complaining.

Yes I'm questioning the entire conversation. Is there a separate 'non-emergency' number for their air division? I used the main # and that person contacted air for the info, all of which is suspect after the record locator comment.

Called Silversea and was advised that record locators won't be made available until 60 days pre-departure because "if the flights change, the record locator will change". That's a new one. That said, I am advised that on legs with two class aircraft, the SS business upgrade provides first class seating, not economy.

No, because outdoor dining at 50 degrees is something you do around a campfire, if ever!

Have you recently logged into my.silversea.com? Our flights for November '23 just magically appeared there a couple of weeks ago. No notice to us or to our TA. Glad I kept checking. Flights got changed (better, as it happened) also without notice.

That coincides with my experiences with United starts and subsequent EU legs on other 'partner' airlines. Even with the EU airline's own additional record locator, the EU airline's site plays silly buggers with me, and I wind up having to place that phone call. It's been that way for years, and the alliance seems to have no interest in cleaning it up. I'll take your experience as a guide when/if I need to deal with TAP. Will just call first!

No user should have to comprehend port numbers to use the internet, so no worries there. But for users to understand why certain services seem locked out aboard ship (or other venues), it helps to understand that it's well within the capabilities of a venue to do this to you, and little bit about how easily it is done.

If you think about it, no. No one can/would use your phone number to find you on FaceTime. Those other apps make the connection through their own servers, and aren't in any way associated with your phone number - they have no idea what it is. If someone calls or texts to your phone number, even if you're using WiFi calling, your carrier is the one that is responsible for sorting out where your phone is and is responsible for sorting out how to get the calling party or text message connected to you. This will be a bit oversimplified, but explains what can happen aboard ship. Different internet services are identified by what are called 'port numbers'. Sending a port number tells the other end what it is you are hoping that it will do with whatever data you send to it. For example, there's a standard port number associated with a request for a web page. A browser will send that specific port number when it asks a server somewhere to deliver a web page in return. As it happens, the number for this kind of request is 80. WiFi calling has a very different set of ports. AT&T requires, for example, that the phone making the request do so using port number 500 and 4500. Port 1935 might be used for a video streaming service like YouTube. Since what kind of service the user is likely trying access with their device can be determined based upon the port number involved with their data, it becomes possible to block that service by killing any traffic associated with that port number. So if a ship wanted to prohibit use of AT&T WiFi calling, the ship's server would simply block any traffic associated with ports 500 and 4500 as mentioned above. Poof. No AT&T WiFi calling for the user since it requires the use of those two ports. You want to block users from accessing YouTube? Just block any traffic associated with port 1935.

As noted, it's for incoming calls should something really go south while we're at sea. I suspect the word 'native' is what isn't understood. Connecting a phone to WiFi using its 'native' WiFi calling feature means connecting it up to some local (and cooperative) WiFi system, having the phone use that WiFi system make internet contact with the carrier (T-Mobile, Verizon, etc.) and letting the carrier know where the phone is. Only then, when someone tries to call that phone, can the carrier in turn know where the phone is, and re-route the call to the WiFi network to which the phone is connected rather than to a cell tower somewhere. It's the only way you can receive text messages and voice calls to your regular phone number without a cellular connection. In this instance, it's the ship's WiFi system that the carrier has to route calls to in order to reach your phone. If the cruise line wishes to do so, they can block this type of access through their WiFi system, just as they can block connections for other types of services. It's silly for them to do so since voice calls don't use very much bandwidth, but it does remove a potential additional source of revenue for them. And my question is whether Silversea does block this service, and if so, whether it's blocked on just the basic WiFi or also their premium WiFi. Why? We really don't expect our veterinarian to use Zoom or WhatsApp if they need to contact us, among other examples.

That's wild. My last experience was in late '22. I had purchased business class DEN-FRA (United) -BCN (Lufthansa) from United for 4 of us, then had to call Lufthansa to get us together in seating since there were no seats assigned. Their web site wouldn't let me even look at seats because they said I was booked in basic economy where no seats may be moved to begin with, and had a major headache dealing with their U.S. reps on the phone. Glad you had better luck.

When you're dealing with a Star Alliance overseas codeshare that starts with a North American partner (e.g., United or Air Canada), changing seats or upgrading on the European airline that handles the EU leg(s) is often quite an exercise. With Lufthansa, I can NEVER get it to work online, even with the second Lufthansa-specific locator in hand, and always have to call them. I don't imagine that TAP will be any easier.

Once (if) I can get the record locators from SS, I'll definitely add those to my booked trips in the UA app which MIGHT help, but perhaps not if SS changes the entire itinerary again, perhaps to one with yet a different locator number. UA certainly has no record of this trip associated with my account so far. I don't yet have any visibility as to what the SS musical chairs situation looks like from the airline side. Will make a point of requesting locators ASAP. Thanks for the good news on the FLL to DEN leg. It's a bummer to have the very last leg of an otherwise first class vacation finish with 3-1/2 hours in the back of the bus.

Yes, I'm familiar with that having spent a fair bit of time on EU aircraft over the years. But that won't apply in this particular case as there isn't a business class offering of any sort on the TAP flight, just Economy and Executive, and the aircraft does have four rows of 'first class' up front for the latter. So I'm still wondering what kind of seat SS will book on that leg.

While I'm in SS air mode this morning ... more newbie questions. We have opted for the SS business class upgrade - at today's prices, it's now a real bargain vs. back when we booked it. That's a bonus on the DEN to LHR leg since United's 787-9 service out of Denver has no business class. United has shifted to combined business/first service (Polaris class) on those aircraft. But the two subsequent legs from LHR to Lisbon and the return from from FLL to DEN (it's a TA cruise) are on two class aircraft (economy + first, no business). What seats is SS likely to arrange for us on THOSE legs?

Thanks for those details. We're in a Silver, so it's covered. Our cruise is a TA, so we'll be stuck with the slower system for much of the cruise. We're accustomed to port blocking issues, and that brings up another question I had forgotten to ask... Does SS block native WiFi calling? 'Premium' WiFi on other RCG lines allows it so that we don't need to use 3rd party apps to communicate with family back home. Incoming calls work normally.

Thanks for the forewarning. I'll request the locators for both the UA and TP flights. Yes, I'm very familiar with Star Alliance and code share issues. We'll be direct DEN to LHR on UA, but the LHR to Lisbon leg is a TAP Portugal codeshare, and I fully expect a seat assignment hassle there if it works like my usual Lufthansa experiences.

Q for those who have been down this road before -- this is our first: When there are changes to flight itinerary, does SS normally notify either the guest or the travel agent? Just found that we have had ours changed entirely, but only discovered it by accident as I was in our SS reservation online today. Actually turned out to be a better pair of flights as regards schedule (and Polaris class on a 787-9 rather than on the older 757 setup), but notice of such changes would certainly be appreciated. Ah, and edit to ask: At what point to we get record locators, and perhaps seat assignment information?

After poking around on their web site a bit, I may have found why there was no package offered when we booked nor afterward. They have nothing to sell us:

New SS cruiser here. Package? I'm reasonably certain that we weren't offered any choices when booking nor online afterward.

Just understand that there are some itineraries where, if you are far enough out of sight of land, the StarLink system isn't yet operational. If the Starlink satellites within the field of view of the ship don't also have a view to a ground station somewhere, they have no place to send/receive your communications. Unlike the older mid-orbit geostationary constellations, the Starlink satellites are MUCH closer to the ground, and while this helps a lot with latency, speed and the like, it limits their field of view considerably. That said, since the Moon will be in Greece / Middle East during the period you mention, you should be in great shape.

Only if spell check changed toque to torque.

True, but menus aren't. What @West Windsor girl reports at Atlantide is different from recently posted photos of SS menus. That Dawn cruise seems to have been a very anomalous one.